I am fascinated by the way in which credit card surcharges can be such a major part of the fee. I don't wish to blame FR for
everything but it was probably them that notched the surcharge so high and the others, seeing that FR got away with it, then followed. Of course, FR were just supplementing their artificially low head-line price. Other carries had no such excuse!
Interestingly, on a trip just booked with BA (Berlin £145 all up) I was charged £3 for using a credit card - even though it was the BA AmEx card
. However, when I booked the airport parking with APH - and used the same card - they only made a surcharge of .28p! Now, I know that these charges are often a percentage of the total (as that is how the card company bill the merchant) but the BA one was a fixed price.